


Happy Birthday

by teamcalebmalphas



Category: chronicles of nick
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-11 21:19:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5642323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamcalebmalphas/pseuds/teamcalebmalphas





	Happy Birthday

Nick Gautier shifted the gift from one spot to another, moving it this way and that way, trying to find the right angle to satisfy. Not that it mattered anyway. He was going to be bringing it out of his room, so how it was positioned was just his subconscious alerting him that he was nervous. Why was he so nervous? They’d been friends for over two years now and they’d been through so much together, putting their lives on the line protecting each other. He was one of the best friends Nick had ever known. Yet, recently, Nick was wondering if he thought of him as something…other than a friend.

Nick’s head popped up at the sound of a knock on his apartment door. He snatched up the envelope—a joke gift—and went to answer the door. Caleb Malphas’s dark brown gaze met Nik’s brilliant blue one. He was dressed in a black leather jacket, a plain red shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Nick couldn’t help noticing as he stepped aside for his friend to enter that Caleb was born to wear black leather jackets.

Caleb entered and called out, “Hello, Ms. Gautier.”

“She’s not here. Late shift at Sanctuary.” Nick grinned, shutting the door and following Caleb to the bar in the kitchen.

“Well, at least I only look like a dumbass in front of you.” Caleb sat on one of the bar stools while Nick leaned against the marbled bar top. He set down the sealed envelope in front of Caleb.

Caleb raised an eyebrow. ‘What’s this?” He stared from Nick to the envelope.

“Well,” Nick began as Caleb lifted the envelope and cautiously started opening it. “I’m seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice, so I’m giving you a picture of me. Really, Cay, you should be more diligent.”

Caleb removed the photograph of Nick, face contorted with confusion. “Seriously, Nick, why am I here?”

“What, two friends can’t just hang out? We’ve hung out often enough that I don’t know why this time would be any different.”

“When you called you said it was urgent that I get here but when I arrived you weren’t under attack. Why was it so urgent that I be here?”

Swallowing, Nick went into his room to retrieve the box that was as long as his forearm: elbow to the tip of his middle finger. Taking a seat on the stool beside Caleb, he placed the gift on the countertop.

“I’ve known you for over two years now, Caleb. I don’t know when your birthday is and it recently occurred to me that I never bothered to ask. So I got you a present to make up for the ones I’ve missed and the one I may or may not have missed this year. You don’t have to tell me when your birthday is, but—” Nick nodded to the gift before Caleb. “—happy birthday.”

Caleb stared at Nick, unsure of what to think or say. Nobody had bothered with his birthday until Lilianna. And nobody had cared since she died. Nick did this without a thought for himself. Caleb was so used to bribery and blackmail but this was pure consideration and thoughtfulness.

Nick watched with a quaking heart as Caleb steadily opened his true gift. He lifted the box’s lid to find a gleaming pure silver dagger with an inscription engraved on either side of the blade. The handle was made to look like a dragon circling a pillar of some sort, the wings designed as the cross guard and the pommel the head. The dragon’s eyes were shimmering garnets, the only other color on the dagger. Caleb’s breath escaped his lungs at the sight of the intricate details.

“The Latin on the blade says—”

“I know what the Latin says. I was there when the language was created” Caleb breathed.

_Invictus maneo._

_I remain unvanquished._

Nick had talked to one of Kyrian’s people about forging the sword. He used a good portion of his salary for the gift, obstinate that it had to be made from pure silver and the garnets had to be one hundred percent real. Kyrian had helped him with the Latin. Nick still thought it was ironic since he had once served as an ancient Greek hero.

“The scabbard is under the tissue paper.” Nick said after a long moment of silence while Caleb admired the dagger, turning it in his hand, feeling the weight.

Caleb felt the tears at the back of his eyes, stinging, attempting to escape. When Nick said he’d gotten him a gift, he thought it would’ve been something Caleb would put on a shelf and eventually the two of them would forget about it. Not something he’d put to use…or ever forget about.

“Thank you, Nick. I don’t know what—” Caleb paused and looked at Nick. “Do you notice how I look at you when I think you aren’t paying attention?”

Nick’s heart dropped. Shit. “What? That was a joke, C.”

“Yes,” Caleb placed the dagger back in the box gingerly. “I know. But you wouldn’t have said something if you didn’t mean it. You’re not like that. You always have some truth behind what you say. So have you noticed?”

Nick’s throat was suddenly dry. “I have. And you’re admitting to it?”

“I think I am.”

Silence. A pause between the two. Until Nick broke it. “Caleb, there’s something you need to know. Recently I’ve…you’re my best friend…” Nick stood and walked around. He needed to. “I have recently been thinking about you in a way that people don’t normally think of their best friends in.”

Caleb stood but didn’t move closer, not wanting to scare Nick any more than he clearly is. “How recent is ‘recently’.”

“Longer than the definition says.” Nick admitted.

Caleb finally moved closer to Nick, closing the distance between them. “Is that what you want?”

“What?”

“Do you not want to just be friends? Do you want something more?”

Nick scanned Caleb’s face, searching his eyes for any hint of humor. His gaze lingered finally on his lips and before he knew it Nick pressed his lips to Caleb’s. It was a closed mouth kiss, frozen for a couple seconds. Then Caleb parted his lips, moving Nick’s as well, and added a level of passion to the moment. Nick placed a hand on Caleb’s jaw, fingers grazing his neck. Caleb slid one hand around to the back of Nick’s head, fingers gripping at his hair. His other hand found its way to the small of Nick’s back, pulling their bodies together.

Nick’s breathing was just starting to elevate when Caleb pulled back a few centimeters. “When is your mom going to be home?”

Nick raised an eyebrow and bit his bottom lip. “What’d you have in mind?”

“Something…intimate and against half the country’s belief systems.”

“We just kissed and I have gay thoughts and dreams about my best friend. That ship has sailed, Malphas.”

One corner of Caleb’s mouth curled into a cocky grin as his human brown eyes flickered to their demonic yellow. “If it’s what you want then—”

“Yes, Caleb. I want it. Err, well, you. “

Nick’s hands glided down Caleb’s chest and stomach to the waistband of his jeans, the two boys’ passionate making out continuing.

= = = = = = = =  + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + = = = = = = = = = = = = = + + + + + + + +

Nick’s chest rose and fell with the deep breaths he took. Caleb lay beside him, both naked in Nick’s bed, their clothes strewn on Nick’s bedroom floor. They held hands, intertwining their fingers. Caleb pressed soft kisses to Nick’s forehead.

“Are you okay?” Caleb asked.

Nick laughed gently at Caleb’s concern. It wasn’t the first time that night he’d asked the question. “I’m fantastic. I knew it would be good. I just didn’t know _how_ good.”

“Well, you did start off lucky. I’ve had a handful of millennia of practice.”

Nick rolled onto his side, one hand on Caleb’s chest. He traced light, abstract patterns on Caleb’s olive skin, feeling the lines where he’d been scarred before. He could feel the hard muscles his friend had worked hard to sculpt.

“Is that so? A handful of millennia?”

Caleb cupped Nick’s cheek in his hand, pressing his lips to Nick’s in a kiss made of warmth and soft passion. “Yeah, that’s so.”

Nick stared into those melted chocolate brown eyes, wanting nothing more in life than to stare into those two pools. He enjoyed being in Caleb’s presence but now there was a whole new feeling added onto the joy. Nick needed Caleb.

And deep down, Caleb knew he needed Nick.

Now he was just finally ready to admit it.


End file.
